1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color image processing apparatus, a color image processing method, a recording medium, and program.
2. Description of the Related Art
With printer systems, color matching between the image displayed on a monitor which a user is using for example, and the printed image obtained by outputting the image, is important. Such color matching is carried out using information called “profiles”, which is color information dependent on devices such as printers, monitors, scanners, and so forth. The ICC (International Color Consortium) stipulates the format for profiles, in order to allow color matching to be performed within a unified framework for environments including computer systems and printer systems.
Three types of matching options are stipulated in the ICC format: perceptual, saturation, and colorimetric. The color matching options specify color space compression methods at the time of performing color matching between different color spaces based on the purpose of performing the matching. “Perceptual” is matching with particular weight on the hue, and is particularly used for color matching between monitors and printed images. “Saturation” is matching with weight on saturation, and is used for performing matching while maintaining as high a saturation as possible. “Colorimetric” is used for matching while keeping the color difference as close as possible, and is used for color matching of logos or print samples, for example.
The way in which profiles are used with printer systems is as follows. Several profiles are created beforehand, each with different amounts of toner to be transferred onto the recording medium, for example. An example would be to use a profile calling for large amounts of toner to be transferred in the event of printing photographs or other like images, while using a profile calling for minimum amounts of toner to be transferred for printing shapes or text.
However, with the above-described conventional example, only the three types of matching options, perceptual, saturation, and colorimetric, can be used with each profile created in accordance with the ICC format, and in the event that adding other matching options is desired, the user must select two or more profiles and respective matching options from the user interface of a driver or the like, which is undesirable.
Further, if profiles with different toner amounts are selected, the user needs to further select a profile separate from the above-described matching options.
In FIG. 5, an example of selecting four or more matching operations in a conventional printer driver user interface is shown. FIG. 5 is an example of a user interface window of a driver, from which the user selects profiles and also selects matching options. Reference numeral 52 denotes a portion of the window for selecting the profile to use. The user uses the portion 52 to specify the profile name to use.
Reference numeral 53 denotes a portion of the window for displaying the matching operation currently selected for the profile specified in the portion 52. Reference numeral 54 denotes a pull-down button at the right edge of the display portion 53 in the window, which brings up a pull-down menu with a list of matching options such as denoted by reference numeral 55 upon the user selecting the pull-down button 54 with a pointing device such as a mouse. The user can then select a desired matching operation from the list in the pull-down menu 55. Only three selections are available in the pull-down menu 55, so in the event that more types of matching operations are to be selected, the user needs to combine the profile names and matching operations.
Also, in the event of selecting profiles with different amounts of toner to be transferred, the user needs to specify the profile for the desired amount of toner at the portion 52. The user needs to select profiles for selecting the three or more matching portions, and for obtaining the desired amount of toner. Here, the user is required to perform complicated profile handling which is undesirable.